Second only to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and Jazz Samba by Stan Getz, as the most commercially successful jazz record of all time (it even contained a single for the pop charts, Paul Desmond's magnificent "Take Five"), Dave Brubeck brilliantly popularised jazz and offered it as a palatable alternative to Bobby Vee.

This album sold by the truckload and made Dave Brubeck a popular star. Those jazz critics who shunned him for becoming too commercial must eat their words, as this is a monumental album of the finest modern jazz. "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and "Kathy's Waltz" demonstrate this man's graceful, nonchalant class.